(From top) A WiiPlus game console, famous characters from some topselling Nintendo games and TomTom’s G 910, the trend-setting satellite navigation system

It all started with a load of old balls. Sony’s beautiful advert for its Bravia range of televisions featured 250,000 multicoloured spheres bouncing higgledy-piggledy down a San Francisco hill to the strains of José Gonzáles.

It was mesmerising. So mesmerising, in fact, that the British snapped up giant TVs like there was no tomorrow. One million British homes now have a high-definition-ready TV, despite the limited programming available.

High-definition was also at the centre of one of the fiercest format wars since VHS took on Betamax. The battle between two incompatible “super-DVD” formats, Blu-ray and HD DVD, remains frustratingly unresolved. Several firms launched players this year, but steep prices and confusion surrounding the technologies left most consumers reluctant to shell out on what could soon become obsolete tech.

Couch potatoes rejoiced at the UK appearance of the Slingbox, an eye-catching silver device that connects to your television and beams (or “slings”) the signal from your digibox, Freeview receiver or cable TV to any computer, anywhere in the world. Suddenly, businessmen in Bahrain could keep up with episodes of Lost. And Corrie.

Even so, conventional television was beginning to feel a little passé: the web was where it was at. The role-playing game Second Life had its first millionaire, a virtual real-estate mogul.

The video-sharing website YouTube had a stellar year: it got acres of Press coverage, millions of new users, and was bought by Google for $1.65 billion (the musings of an OAP from Leicester with the user name geriatric1927 particularly caught the public imagination).

Over on MySpace, pop acts of all persuasions used the site to release video previews and song snippets to their fans. Meanwhile, several new music download services attempted to wrest the initiative from Apple’s all-conquering iTunes music store. eMusic, which has just celebrated its billionth download, was selling MP3 format tracks by independent-label artists for as little as 17p.

The long-promised ability to watch television and video on a mobile phone started to look less like a dream, as handsets boasted bigger screens, better speakers and faster download speeds.

The Lobster 700TV could play TV and digital radio; Nokia’s “N” Series continued to combine form with functionality; and the BlackBerry Pearl built upon an already winning formula. Making phone calls over the Internet also grew in popularity, particularly among travellers and those with family abroad. Firms tapped into the trend, producing conventional-looking phone handsets that could be used to make Internet calls.

As with music downloading, Apple’s dominance of the MP3 player market continued, although Samsung’s YP-K5 was a surprise hit, with its touch-screen controls, intuitive menu and powerful fold-out speaker making up for a lack of video playback. Microsoft’s Zune music player, touted as an “iPod killer”, launched in the US to scathing reviews: critics used to iPods' piano-lacquer finish weren’t ready for a player that came in dirt-brown. Microsoft also delayed the launch of the home-user version of its new operating system, Vista, until January.

A high-definition TV from Sony’s Bravia range

Speaking of delays, Sony put back the UK launch of its next-generation games console, the PlayStation 3, until March 2007. But while the PS3 has been wowing fans in the US and Japan with its incredible graphics, British gamers have been seduced by the new Nintendo Wii. Its wireless motion-sensitive remote control and good batch of launch titles has won an army of fans (although the shortage of consoles will frustrate a few parents this Christmas). With the Wii following the tremendous success of the handheld DS Lite, 2006 has been a great year for Nintendo.

And this was also the year we really fell in love with satellite navigation systems, though at times it seemed that barely a week could pass without stories of ambulances being sent the wrong way or drivers getting stuck in narrow lanes and flooded fords. TomTom’s GO 910 set the standard, with a built-in MP3 player, 20GB hard disk, extra-wide touch screen and hands-free calling.

Has there ever been a more exciting time for the gadget-lover? Well, perhaps next year will trump this, with the rumoured Apple iPod phone, home media centres (such as the new BT Vision) finding their feet, personal satellite radios, and cameras boasting more megapixels and simpler controls than ever. Hold on to your hats.

Best of 2006: The Nintendo Wii is a joy to play; it puts the fun back in gaming.

Worst of 2006: High-definition DVD players are a waste of money, given the ongoing format war